D&D 5E What Level 20 Class Would Win?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So, here's a question. What level 20 class do you think would win a 1 on 1 combat against any other class? There are no magic items allowed, unless you have class abilities that give you them. You get your subclass abilities, and get to choose your spells beforehand knowing that you're going into combat, and know who your foe will be.

This is clearly up to initiative a lot of the time, but what do you think is the most likely class to win most of the time? Post your thoughts and tactics below.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Do they get to plan for the specific opponent?

Edit: never mind you answered that in the original question.

 

[Phazonfish]

This is point where every class asks itself: "Do I have an answer to the Moon Druid being able to turn into a full health Mammoth (126 hp) as a bonus action that expends no resources?"

 

[Iry]

Wizard or Lore Bard. Nobody else can come close to Contingency Banishment(Self) to buy them time and do horrible things to their foes.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Wizard or Lore Bard. Nobody else can come close to Contingency Banishment(Self) to buy them time and do horrible things to their foes.

A "Contingency -> Banishment (Self)"...not gonna work.

Banishment is Concentration up to one minute. When a creature is Banished...."if the creature is native to the plane you are on, you banish the target to a harmless demiplane. While there, the target is incapacitated. " Looking at Incapacitated, "Can't take actions or reactions". Looking at Concentration, one of the stipulations is that you can't be dead or Incapacitated.

So, your Contingency goes off, you go to a demiplane where you immediately become Incapacitated, breaking your Concentration, and immediately popping you right back to where you were...minus a 4th level and 6th level spell. I'm sure your opponent appreciates it thought!

Personally, I went with Cleric. Being able to say "Odin, I need serious help here"...and having Odin hear and actually DO something to seriously help you is pretty much an "I win" button in this fictitious white-room scenario. Whatever/Whoever is your opponent is roughly equal in power to you (the cleric), is prepared with the specific intention of killing you. Pretty sure most Deities don't want their most honoured and faithful priests to get killed in a round or two...that's just bad PR all around! (As a meta-game...the Deity in question is the Dungeon Master; the Cleric just asked the DM to help him win... ).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Moon Druids or Zealot Barbarians would have the easiest victory against most foes. They are both nigh unkillable by conventional means. Hard to win a fight against that.

But, for "who is viable against absolutely every enemy with preparation", we have to turn to Wizards. They can learn and prepare whatever spells are optimal against whatever mighty champion they face.

Notably the reliable way to get around any sort of invulnerability is the Power Word kill spell. The other classes with access to this would not be advised to take it as it is generally a mediocre level 9 spell. But a Wizard can discover at level 20 that he needs it and go acquire it if he doesn't already have it, along with any other Wizard spell useful against any other enemy. With this he just has to get the Moon Druid's elemental or whatever form down to to be below 100 hit points and visible at the beginning of his turn and point at them and he has won.

We'd go with the generally mediocre War Magic subclass as they get the best bonuses to saving throws and can thus hold concentration the best if their strategy revolves around turning into a dragon or something. Abjuration would be the runner up.

If they were able to build towards the specific enemy for several levels before 20 I would give it to Lore Bards, since they then have access to every spell list, can cutting words the opponent and, if they cast Glibness, then all their counterspells will auto-succeed.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Personally, I went with Cleric. Being able to say "Odin, I need serious help here"...and having Odin hear and actually DO something to seriously help you is pretty much an "I win" button in this fictitious white-room scenario.

If the DM is generous with what Divine Intervention gives you then I agree.

On that note I think it's really unfortunate that clerics get this as an automatic success at level 20, as it makes DMs reticent to make it as powerful as it should be given that for most of the game (and all the levels most people actually play if they get even that far) they have to spend their action on a low chance of doing anything ability.

 

[Zardnaar]

I kind of treat Divine intervention as a wish spell. I've seen it used once and the request was basically for mass teleport and they rolled successfully so I granted it.

 

[Gradine]

We'd go with the generally mediocre War Magic subclass as they get the best bonuses to saving throws and can thus hold concentration the best if their strategy revolves around turning into a dragon or something. Abjuration would be the runner up..

A Diviner with a low roll stocked up basically wins any one-on-one fight for free, no?

"I make my save!"
"No, you don't."

 

[Iry]

A "Contingency -> Banishment (Self)"...not gonna work.

You're only incapacitated if you are a native of the current plane. It's much better to be a native of a different plane for these kind of competitions. Gith, Eladrin, Genasi, or just some dude from Sigil, etc.